Profile on CSM Convention Masterclass teacher, Broadway’s Telly Leung: Part 2
The annual CS Convention & Vocal Competition will be held in Chicago on May 23-26, and the roster of masterclasses is loaded with industry leaders, teachers, and performers—all at the top of their respective fields. Star of stage, screen, and recording studio, Broadway’s Telly Leung (Aladdin, Allegiance, Flower Drum Song, Godspell, In Transit, Pacific Overtures) will work with singers in two master classes at the convention. For more information on Telly’s vocal journey, his work with students, and how he plans to collaborate with singers at the convention, be sure to read Part 1 of this 2 part profile on Telly Leung. In Part 2 of this profile, Telly describes what it’s like to have a role built on him, and shares reflections on his experiences working with iconic living (and recently living) composers Stephen Schwartz and Stephen Sondheim.
Our discussion continues over Zoom with Telly in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University, where he’s returned to direct CMU students in a production of the musical Titanic.
“Well, my first experience working with the musical theater titan composers was with Schwartz. Stephen Schwartz was a Carnegie Mellon grad, and he would come back every year and coach students. And so I first met Stephen Schwartz my junior year or something—he was always a guest teacher here. And eventually I worked with Schwartz on many things, including Wicked and Godspell, and I did a Children of Eden that was out at Ford’s Theater. And he was always present in all of those things. And I’ve done concerts with him and things like that, and he’s lovely. And honestly, Schwartz would always be like, ‘Yeah, I’ve written this rhythm on the page, but do what you need to do with this rhythm to make the story clear.’
And so here is a living composer that is still writing, that’s going, ‘I just need this to work in front of a house. So obviously we notated the rhythms of whoever originated this role. But if you’re originating this role, I’m going to notate the rhythms you’re singing…’ And of course, he’ll have certain things that he goes, ‘Don’t change that rhythm there—I need this word on the downbeat.’ Or there are certain things that he as a composer is going to want very specifically. But I find that for them, they’re very flexible—living composers.”
Our conversation moves to the late icon of the musical theater, Stephen Sondheim:
“And I worked with Stephen Sondheim when he was a living composer on Pacific Overtures, and he was still changing lyrics on that show because it was the first revival that was done on Broadway.” Telly continues, “For these composers, they’re getting a second chance at it. Stephen Sondheim is not sitting back there thinking, ‘I’m Stephen Sondheim and what I’ve written is in stone.’ At the time when I worked with him, he was 75 and still very much a living composer and said, ‘You know what? I have another chance—I’m gonna change this lyric.’ Or he would ask actors, ‘What key do you want it in?’ And that was always shocking to me at 25 years old working on a Stephen Sondheim musical.”
Telly continues, referencing Paul Gemignani, the iconic, American music director who’s most closely associated with Stephen Sondheim and his soundtrack and concert discography:
“’What do you mean—what key do I want it in? It’s not a fixed key?’ And Paul Gemignani would answer, ‘No, it’s not fixed. Let me call Steve on my cell phone and ask him what key—if it’s okay to change the key.’ It blew my mind, because you can’t call Verdi—people can’t call Puccini now to ask if we can change the key, you know?
And probably if we are doing it, there’s a certain amount in the classical world where it’s like, ‘No, absolutely not. You can’t. You shan’t!’
Whereas with the [musical] theater, because it’s a newer art form, I think part of it’s just a different way of looking at making theater, that we go, ‘Why not?’ Why can’t it be this? And I think part of that is the fun. Even with those composers that are huge, titanic names in the musical theater—you know, the Stephen Schwartz’s and the Stephen Sondheims—they very much were still kids in a sandbox trying to make a show.”
Telly reflects on a conversation with Stephen Sondheim during their work together at the time of Telly’s Broadway debut—the 2002 Broadway revival of Flower Drum Song:
“And of course Stephen Sondheim also had very specific things he wanted to hear. I sang ‘Someone in a Tree,’ which is a very dear song to him, and I was playing a 10-year-old kid…and there’s an old man and the old man looks back in time and he remembers being a 10-year-old kid who climbs a tree to witness this very historic event.
And when I entered, there was such a long running and an entering, and I had to climb a ladder which represented the tree. And I laughed my way through it. And he [Sondheim] said, ‘You can laugh through this part of the song, but there are certain moments that I don’t want a laugh’ because for him, he didn’t want to alter sonically what that moment was. So he was very specific about, ‘You can add a laugh here—don’t laugh here.’ Very specific. There were just certain things that he wanted to hear, but then otherwise, I think he had deference for the actor who had to do it eight times a week.”
We conclude our conversation with the circumstances, challenges, and potential luxuries of originating a role in a musical:
Allegiance (San Diego, 2012; Broadway 2015) was a show that was built on me. And it was a very specific conversation that through rewrites of the show, my character became older. As we went from San Diego to Broadway—just through rewrites and workshops and labs that happened even after the out of town—my character also ages. Like, my character also goes through fights of war; goes through the three, four years of internment; and then doesn’t speak to his family for 50 years. So there is an aging that happens. When we were out of town, I was in a lot of vocal trouble, because everything was written for my character at the time he was 17—a high school graduate. When we got to Broadway, I [the character] was a college dropout—a couple of years later. I said, ‘Hey y’all, do you want me to sing this eight times a week and be able to act all of this and be able to do it eight times a week [in a way] that’s manageable?’ I said, ‘Can we write the whole thing down a third?’ I just said that. I said, ‘Nobody is sitting in the audience with a pitch pipe going ‘is Telly Leung the young singing a high A every five seconds?’ Who cares? But guess what, if I’m a little sick or I’m a little tired? I can give you a G any day and give you an F sharp any day. So, why don’t we write the whole thing a third lower?’ And they did. And it’s the luxury of having something written on you.”
To learn more about Telly Leung and his upcoming work with singers at the upcoming CS Convention & Vocal Competition, be sure to read Part 1 of this profile on Broadway’s Telly Leung.
